Well...I've had this unit installed for a couple of months now...it is awesome!
Tons of features, everything you could want as far as tuning goes, have yet to try the built in RTA...soon.
I ran Knukonceptz wiring all through the car....1/0 gauge power wire
Have two Rockford Fosgate P550.2s in the trunk right now...I like the way they look (compact) and they don't perform too bad either
Still need to find a place to mount the amps..they are literally just laying there in the trunk...not good.
The cars steering wheel controls are adapted to the Pioneer head unit via the PAC SWI-PS, so they work just like the factory...actually better.
My car came with a stock cd changer...I wanted to keep it, it is a Pioneer changer after all...but it uses the older M-Bus technology, vs the newer IP-Bus.
The newer changers also include cool features like CD-Text. So it was only logical to upgrade it as well. I was looking for a good deal on eBay, I found the FM changers going pretty cheap...and they have an IP Bus port for "future upgrade" to a Pioneer head unit. Scored a Pioneer Premier CDX-FM1279 for around $50, it included 3 magazines as well.
I had previously ordered an IP-BUS cable off of eBay...it was 6 bux and was not made by Pioneer....the bastards wired the power plug wrong.
THEY REVERSED THE GROUND AND B+.
I had previously bench tested this unit with a different harness...so I knew it was working before I installed it...as I usually do with all my equipment.
Well, I hooked the bad boy up and it wasn't working....hmm, the fuse blew. I got the multimeter out and checked the resistance between the ground and B+ wire....was at about 5 ohms or so....a short. So I checked the 17 foot harness that I just ran down the car (and put all the carpet and panels back in place) to see if I had shorted it out somewhere....didn't see any breaks.
Sooo....I unplugged the harness and checked the resistance between the ground terminal and B+ terminal of the changer....dead short....
I looked at the power harness that came with the unit comparing it to my "new" cable, and realized what had happened.
Luckily the engineers at Pioneer had the brains to put in a diode for reverse polarity protection...so that's all I needed to replace (burnt to a crisp, luckily I have this type of stuff on hand) and it is now back up and running. Switched the pins around to there correct position on the harness and all is good.
Here she is all installed in the factory position:
Had to use some 3/8" wood spacers/adapters to mount the changer, as it is slightly smaller than the stock changer (3/4" less in width).
You can see the reflection of my subwoofer on the access cover of the changer...
Guess I need to clean the changer bracket assembly off....tad bit dusty....actually, need to detail all of my interior one of these days...
I also installed the Dynamat license plate kit for shits and giggles...it works and now "I've got better sound"...
More install to come....always changing things around it seems...
TOC Admin
Brando
